I love that NBA writers have such a Lakers bias. Miami two seasons ago falls two wins short of a title and that's a disaster. The Lakers on the other hand can consider sliding into the 8th seed a success. Seriously? The team has four Hall of Famers on it! The 8th seed is an utterly tremendous failure. Maybe without equal in NBA history.

At the very least, the Western Conference Finals should be the standard. How does this happen? How did making the playoffs somehow convert to success for this team?

This entire dialogue for the last several days is how Kobe is passing and the Lakers look good! "Hey, they might make the playoffs! Hooray!"

That's how the media works. They knee jerk to everything and this is the latest turn in the Laker drama. You can only talk about them playing bad for so long. When something finally good happens, like the Lakers winning 3 in a row including a big win over OKC and in the fashion they've been winning, of course it would be a big story.

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Here's the thing, they should be getting killed. Miami won 58 games that first year. It's still a question as to whether the Lakers will win 38.

And they have been. Where have you been? These past 5 days have been the only somewhat positive media days for the Lakers in a while. You're upset about that even? NO positive headlines allowed is what you're saying? There are always peaks and valleys throughout a season in terms of media coverage. They final judgment will be made when their season ends.

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I had a user on here the other day ask me why I left Kobe off my top 5 list for MVP! How could anyone from this team remotely get any awards consideration?

And they have been. Where have you been? These past 5 days have been the only somewhat positive media days for the Lakers in a while. You're upset about that even? NO positive headlines allowed is what you're saying? There are always peaks and valleys throughout a season in terms of media coverage. They final judgment will be made when their season ends.

Are you going to pretend that the amount of negativity that the Lakers have received has been remotely justified after what we saw with Miami for the last two years? That's gotta be the standard, right?

The funny thing I think back to is that I didn't think LeBron deserved the MVP that year because Miami underperformed expectations. The guy averaged 27, 8 and 7 on a 58 win team and that was not enough.

If Miami had lost to Indiana last year it would've been less of a failure than the Lakers this season.

I'm not trying to make this a Miami thing, but it's just so fascinating the differences in reactions. LeBron held The Decision, but that was nowhere near as bad as Dwight holding up the Magic for two years with his drama.

The only people I can think of that have received that amount of vitriol has been Pau Gasol and Mike D'Antoni. That's just hilarious.

Are you going to pretend that the amount of negativity that the Lakers have received has been remotely justified after what we saw with Miami for the last two years? That's gotta be the standard, right?

The funny thing I think back to is that I didn't think LeBron deserved the MVP that year because Miami underperformed expectations. The guy averaged 27, 8 and 7 on a 58 win team and that was not enough.

If Miami had lost to Indiana last year it would've been less of a failure than the Lakers this season.

I'm not trying to make this a Miami thing, but it's just so fascinating the differences in reactions. LeBron held The Decision, but that was nowhere near as bad as Dwight holding up the Magic for two years with his drama.

The only people I can think of that have received that amount of vitriol has been Pau Gasol and Mike D'Antoni. That's just hilarious.

I'm not exactly sure what your point is. The media hasn't given them a pass.. they have been killed all year. Daily columns and TV segments talking about why the Lakers are bad. This has literally been the only week they have said good stuff about them for multiple days, and that's only because they've been so BAD all year, that any sign of the Lakers turning it around also becomes a big story. Not hard to understand.

I'm not exactly sure what your point is. The media hasn't given them a pass.. they have been killed all year. Daily columns and TV segments talking about why the Lakers are bad. This has literally been the only week they have said good stuff about them for multiple days, and that's only because they've been so BAD all year, that any sign of the Lakers turning it around also becomes a big story. Not hard to understand.

No, my point is actually pretty simple. There is no salvation in just making the playoffs for the Lakers, regardless of their record. They have the highest payroll in the league and four hall of fame caliber players. They should be judged solely on winning a title or not. To not win it all is nothing but a complete failure. To not make the playoffs or to simply get bounced in the first round is a depth without equal in modern NBA history.